Just about all of Boulder County's hot topics got aired out in a commissioner candidate forum Tuesday night at Superior Town Hall, sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Boulder County.

Garry Sanfacon, the county's Fourmile Fire recovery manager and a candidate for the District 1 seat, staked out the toughest position on fracking -- the controversial gas extraction method drilling companies use to tease out natural gas from deep within the ground -- by saying he would push to ban it in Boulder County. The county imposed a moratorium on the practice earlier this year.

Garry Sanfacon

Despite court rulings that uphold state supremacy when it comes to regulation of oil and gas drilling in Colorado, Sanfacon said local governments are giving up their right to self-determination by not challenging state law on the issue.

"Anything we've accomplished in this country, precedents have been overturned," he said. "The only way to overturn these precedents is to assert our rights."

But his opponent in District 1, Colorado Environmental Coalition Executive Director Elise Jones, said Sanfacon's position on fracking is nothing more than a naive attempt to "wish away our laws." She said defying state statutes on natural gas drilling will only invite litigation from the industry.

She said the better solution is to work long-term toward changing Colorado law on resource extraction and in the meantime get more inspectors out in the field monitoring air and water quality around natural gas wells.

Sanfacon and Jones, both Democrats, face off against one another in a primary contest June 26. One of them hopes to replace Commissioner Will Toor, who is term-limited, in November.

Maureen Denig
(John Aguilar)

Commissioner Deb Gardner, who was appointed to her District 2 post after Ben Pearlman vacated the seat earlier this year to become county attorney, said she supports a cropland policy in the county that gradually moves away from the use of genetically modified crops.

The issue of GMO crops on county open space blew up into a massive dispute between organic and conventional farmers last year and culminated with a decision by the commissioners in December to limit the planting of GMOs to genetically engineered corn and sugar beets.

"We need to transition out of growing GMOs on our public lands," said Gardner, a Democrat who is running to defend her seat in November.

Deb Gardner
(
CLIFF GRASSMICK
)

Her opponent, Maureen Denig, said organic farming methods often don't produce the robust crop yields that conventional farming methods do. Denig, owner of a travel agency in Longmont and the only Republican in the race, said both agricultural approaches can co-exist.

"The farmers who grow GMO products work very well with organic farmers," she said.

All the candidates took jabs at the Regional Transportation District for its inability to secure funding and lay out a time table for bringing a commuter train to the northwest corridor.

"RTD reminds me of the Big Dig in Boston -- it's a perennial pit of money they keep taking from us," said Denig, a Massachusetts resident before relocating to Longmont four years ago.

Sanfacon said light rail, rather than heavy diesel, should get a fresh look in the corridor while Gardner said transportation planners should take into account the whole region when considering the future of Northwest Rail, with an emphasis on bus rapid transit as an interim transit solution.

Jones lobbied for an unlimited Eco Pass for everyone in Boulder County.

"If you have an Eco Pass in your pocket, you're nine times more likely to use transit," she said.

The three Democratic candidates said the county made a mistake when it committed to taking a neutral position on the proposed Jefferson Parkway in return for assurances from Jefferson County that a 640-acre parcel on the west side of the Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge, known as Section 16, would be preserved as a wildlife corridor. Denig said she didn't know enough about the issue to comment.

The Jefferson Parkway has become anathema to Superior, which believes the tollway would funnel traffic down McCaslin Boulevard and potentially stir up plutonium in the soil south of town. The town has fiercely fought the Broomfield-to-Golden highway over the last year.

"I don't think we took the whole county's perspective in taking that position," Sanfacon said.

Gardner said she, too, would not have voted the way the commissioners voted on the issue.

"I'm not sure that it was a really good bargain that was made," she said.

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